An­na-Lisa Paul

As mem­bers of the pub­lic rushed to their favourite restau­rants and fast-food out­lets yes­ter­day, ahead of the new COVID re­stric­tions that went in­to ef­fect at mid­night yes­ter­day, some pro­pri­etors were look­ing for ways to sell their prod­ucts dur­ing the lock­down.

The own­er of a store at Abou­tique Mall, Port-of-Spain, said she was able to stuff a few suit­cas­es with items to take home, which she in­tends to sell on­line dur­ing the next month.

The woman, who has been op­er­at­ing a mod­est va­ri­ety store for the past two years, said, “I have to trust in God for every­thing.”

Al­though she is un­hap­py about the new mea­sures an­nounced by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley that all malls will re­main closed un­til May 23, she ad­mit­ted, “I was not able to pre­pare for the last shut­down and all my goods were left in the mall. This time around, I still wasn’t able to pre­pare, as the mall closed at 5.30 pm and he would have spo­ken about it from 2.30 pm, so I did not have enough time to pack every­thing.”

Her items in­clud­ed wal­lets, per­fumes, hand­bags and clothes.

The Pe­tit Val­ley woman, who did not want to be iden­ti­fied, said, “Next week­end is Moth­er’s Day and peo­ple will still want to get gifts, so I will be sell­ing on­line.”

Un­cer­tain of her busi­ness fu­ture af­ter May 23, the pro­pri­etress ex­plained, “The last time, we had to pay 25 per cent of our rent when we re­turned to open our busi­ness­es and I do not know what will hap­pen this time around.”

While the mall will be closed to the pub­lic to­day, the op­er­a­tors of Abou­tique Mall have agreed to fa­cil­i­tate busi­ness own­ers want­i­ng to re­move their goods be­tween 8 am and 10 am.

Mean­while, busi­ness own­er Vi­dal Ho­sein, who op­er­ates a cloth­ing store at Gulf City Mall, re­vealed, “We don’t know how we will be cop­ing for the next month be­cause we will still have to pay rent, so all fi­nances will be on halt and then we have to pay the rent for the mall.”

He said the fu­ture of em­ploy­ees was al­so on their shoul­ders.

“The work­ers will have to be paid ob­vi­ous­ly be­cause they will be home, so it will be a ma­jor loss for us be­cause we will have to pay from our pock­ets ba­si­cal­ly.”

Verne Dubois, Mar­aval

“I think it is good be­cause the cas­es are go­ing up. It is on the rise and this is for our safe­ty.”

Stand­ing in line to stock up on pet food and rice for his an­i­mals, the taxi dri­ver sym­pa­thised, “Peo­ple are suf­fer­ing all now.”

He said the first set of re­stric­tions in ear­ly 2020 had re­sult­ed in some per­sons be­ing un­able to pay their rent and main­tain their fam­i­lies, with some hav­ing to move out dur­ing the mid­dle of the night in some cas­es.

Dubois said, “There is no help for the poor.”

Dwinel Warn­er, Bel­mont

She said she went to the gro­cery yes­ter­day in an at­tempt to get ahead of the record num­ber of shop­pers ex­pect­ed to­day and over this week­end. Warn­er said the shock an­nounce­ment by the PM had cre­at­ed a sense of pan­ic among the pop­u­lace. Con­cerned about the record num­ber of cas­es an­nounced yes­ter­day, she said, “I am do­ing all that is asked of me and all that I can do. I am hop­ing that this will be enough un­til these re­stric­tions are sort­ed out.”

Warn­er said there is a gen­er­al fear that these alarm­ing num­bers will over­whelm the health­care sys­tem.

“We don’t want it to reach the po­si­tion where no one can get ser­vice at these hos­pi­tals and then we have to think about the front line work­ers as well.”

Pep­py, Belle Vue

“Peo­ple have to go about their rou­tine as it is month-end and he could have wait­ed for them to go to the gro­cery and mar­ket.”

Com­ment­ing on the lines of shop­pers wait­ing to en­ter the gro­cery and those want­i­ng to get their last taste of fast food, Pep­py said al­though he was alarmed by the ris­ing cas­es, the ques­tion that need­ed to be asked was, “If this last for ten more years, what will we do? Do we keep clos­ing and open­ing back the econ­o­my?”

He added, “Peo­ple who have mon­ey can go along with it but those who pay­ing rent…they will be worse off.”